Understanding Health Literacy: Why It Is So Important and What Librarians Can Do to Help

An Infopeople Webinar

According to the National Assessment of Adult Literacy, more than a third of adult Americans have trouble understanding basic medical information. Health literacy is the notion that a person is able to obtain, understand, and act on information provided about a health topic or medication. Low or limited health literacy can result in a patient's misunderstanding of a diagnosis or treatment options, medication errors, or poor health outcomes in general.

Providing quality health information is not enough. The ability to read—and understand—is necessary in order to make decisions and take action. This webinar will examine the related issues of literacy and health literacy and how it relates to health outcomes for millions of Americans. Several eye-opening examples will demonstrate how low literacy impacts the health care of actual patients. Attendees will learn strategies for finding appropriate, understandable health information, the meaning of "easy-to-read" designations, and resources for helping users communicate better with their healthcare providers. The session will conclude with ideas for programming and partnerships to benefit your community. The webinar content will be useful for public and hospital librarians and staff and anyone who provides health information to members of the public.

Webinars are free of charge and registration is only done on the day of the event on the WebEx server. No passwords are required.

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Infopeople, a grant project of the Califa Group, is supported in part by the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act, administered in California by the State Librarian. Material on this website is licensed under a Creative Commons License.